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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28652544">loving is easy when everything's perfect</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals'>bothsexuals</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Happy Death Day (Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-13 14:00:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,331</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28652544</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bothsexuals/pseuds/bothsexuals</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tree dyes her hair pink again.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Carter Davis &amp; Becky Shepard, Carter Davis/Theresa "Tree" Gelbman</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>27</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>loving is easy when everything's perfect</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I was reading the novelization and when the pink hair part arrived I just got hit by the thought of damn, it's unfair we get no Carter reaction to pink-haired Tree, so of course I had to do something about it.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tree bit her lip as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. This hadn’t seemed so scary the last time around—back then, she could do whatever she wanted to her hair and wake up in Carter’s bedroom with it perfectly reset to blonde. Yeah, the repeated brutal murders had sucked, but that had definitely been an upside. </p>
<p>She grabbed the hair dye and took a deep breath. She’d faced multiple killers on multiple occasions, why the hell was she so scared of having pink hair? She knew she looked cute, she’d seen it. But she’d also seen Danielle’s horrified look and heard her shriek, had seen the confused glances from everyone who passed by her—she hadn’t seen Carter’s reaction, though. How had she not thought to find out his opinion? Oh, right, she was still lamely pushing down her feelings for him, then. Dumb. </p>
<p>She set the box of hair dye down and grabbed the scissors instead. All or nothing, right? She breathed in shakily and cut off a big chunk of her own hair, so it ended just above her shoulders. She looked at her reflection. She looked cute. She cut the rest of it, then trimmed it a little to make it all even. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a pretty good job for a slightly terrified non-professional. She smirked at herself in the mirror and took the hair dye again. She ripped the box apart and excitedly started to smear it onto her hair. As she waited the instructed twenty minutes for it to set, she grabbed her phone and called Carter. He immediately picked up. </p>
<p>“Tree,” he said a little breathlessly, the way he always said her name, as if it overwhelmed him to be able to. It always made her heart skip a beat. </p>
<p>“Hey,” she said, a smile immediately forming on her lips, “what are you doing later?” </p>
<p>“Later when?” he asked. </p>
<p>“Forty minutes?” she said, “Thirty-five?” </p>
<p>He chuckled at her impatience to see him. “Yeah, I’m free.” </p>
<p>She bit back an even bigger smile. “Cool.” </p>
<p>“I’ll be there in thirty-two minutes,” he said, a grin audible in his voice. </p>
<p>“What about—”</p>
<p>“Becky can sneak me in without Danielle seeing,” he anticipated her question, “how do you think I managed to bring you croissants the other day?” </p>
<p>“I don’t know, I just assumed you had some sort of powers,” she replied, “plus I’d just woken up and was distracted by the croissants and the cute boy bringing them.” </p>
<p>“That’s fair,” he laughed adorably. “Alright, I gotta go get ready, I’ll see you soon, okay?” </p>
<p>“Alright,” she replied, and without thinking added, “love you.” </p>
<p>She hung up and opened Instagram to mindlessly scroll through it for the remaining time. She paused her scrolling on a picture Carter had posted: it was a silly photo of him and Becky, countless textbooks and notebooks in front of them, captioned <em>studying with the bestie</em>, then a string of nonsensical emojis. She shook her head as a fond giggle escaped her lips. God, she loved this dork. </p>
<p>Wait. </p>
<p>She loved him. Oh my god, she’d told him she loved him. And he was going to be there in—she checked the time— thirteen minutes. Which also meant she had to wash this dye out of her hair. She did so, then blow-dried her hair while internally panicking—what if he didn’t feel the same? She knew he liked her, sure, but they had only been dating a few weeks. He hadn’t known her as long as she’d known him—sure, she’d told him about everything, every interaction they’d had, the times he’d sacrificed himself for her, but it was still just second-hand news to him. She looked at her reflection again as she brushed her hair. She looked different, very different, and she sort of loved it. She felt different, too—getting stuck in a death loop will do that to you—so it fit. She just hoped Carter wouldn’t freak out about his pink-haired girlfriend telling him she loved him. </p>
<p>A soft knock on the door shook her out of her thoughts. </p>
<p>“Tree?” came Becky’s voice. </p>
<p>“Yep?” she called back. </p>
<p>“I got a special delivery for you,” Becky said with a chuckle. </p>
<p>A blush rose to her cheeks. “Let him in,” she said, “and thanks.” She heard the door opening and Carter mumbling a thanks to Becky, then the door closing again. “Sit down,” she called from the bathroom, “I’ll be right there.” She heard Carter awkwardly clear his throat as he sat down, likely on her bed, and glanced at herself in the mirror again. <em>Come on</em>, she thought to herself, <em>you got murdered a bunch of times in two different universes, you can face your boyfriend.</em> She shot her reflection some finger guns, then rolled her eyes at how nerdy that was, and exited the bathroom.  </p>
<p>“Hey,” she said softly. </p>
<p>“He—” the word died in Carter’s throat as he raised his head and saw her. “Oh… wow,” he mumbled breathlessly. </p>
<p>“Good?” she asked, feeling shier than she ever had. </p>
<p>“V-very. Very good.” He stood up and suddenly he was right in front of her, his hand reaching out to twirl a strand of her hair. “You look amazing.” </p>
<p>She bit back a smile, then decided against hiding her joy and let a toothy grin form on her face. “I was worried you wouldn’t like it,” she admitted in a quiet tone. </p>
<p>“I like it,” he quickly reassured her, “I really like it. You look—holy shit, Tree.” </p>
<p>“That good, huh?” </p>
<p>He nodded, swallowing thickly as he continued to stare at her, and she laughed. </p>
<p>“I did it in one of the reboots and I liked it,” she explained, “you didn’t get to see it, though.” </p>
<p>“I’m offended on that version of me’s behalf,” Carter muttered, “he deserved to see this.” </p>
<p>She smiled. Again. God, she always smiled so much around him. </p>
<p>“Listen, Carter, about what I said earlier—” he frowned. “On the phone,” she clarified. </p>
<p>“Oh, you mean about how you <em>love me</em>?” he asked with a shit-eating grin. </p>
<p>“Yeah,” she replied, still bashful despite his playfulness, “listen, I know it’s like, way too early in the relationship, and you don’t even know me as much as I know you, so I don’t want you to feel weird or obligated to say it back and honestly we can just ignore it, it’s not—”</p>
<p>“Tree.” </p>
<p>She stopped rambling and looked at him. </p>
<p>“You’re right, it may be too early.” She bit her lip and he touched it softly with his thumb, forcing her to stop sinking her teeth into it. He ran his thumb over it, sending shivers down her spine. “Our relationship started with a crazy murder-parallel-universe-<em>Groundhog-Day</em> situation,” he said, “I don’t think we’ve gotta worry about things like ‘too early.’” She chuckled and he smiled reassuringly. “I don’t feel weird and I don’t feel obligated to say it back,” he continued, “but I do <em>want</em> to. Because I feel it. I love you, Tree.” </p>
<p>“You do?” she asked, incredulous. “You’re not just saying that because I did?” </p>
<p>“<em>I love you</em>,” he repeated, “and you look really hot with pink hair.” </p>
<p>“Alright, I know at least one of those is definitely true,” she said with a laugh. </p>
<p>He leaned in, almost kissing her, but not quite. “They both are,” he whispered.</p>
<p>“Fine,” she whispered back, smiling as their lips finally touched. </p>
<p>“I love you,” Carter said again once he pulled back, his eyes half-closed and his forehead resting against Tree’s. </p>
<p>“I love you too,” Tree replied in the same low, intimate tone, “dork.” </p>
<p>Carter laughed and pulled her in for another kiss, his fingers tangling in her newly-died hair. “Fuck, you’re pretty,” he mumbled between kisses, so earnest it sent a pang through Tree’s heart sharper than a knife (she would know), but the opposite of painful. God, she loved this dork. And she felt so lucky that he loved her back.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Thanks for reading! If you liked this, please leave kudos and/or comments to let me know!</p></blockquote></div></div>
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